Sport won't climb...

If you were in 4L climbing a hill and killed the engine I don’t think TRAC/VSC was your issue. VSC is not enabled in 4L. See the 1st post in the thread about traction control modes.

What I think happened is that you started to loose traction, TRAC engaged to prevent uneven wheel spin, you lost speed, the truck abruptly found more traction, the rpm dipped too low and the engine died.

If this is the case, you could have prevented it with better throttle and clutch control.

I recommend reading the thread on traction control modes and then going out and practicing with them. It will become 2nd nature after a while. I'll relink it here for convenience.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-traction-control-modes-explained.530695/

My 2016 Tacoma was my first experience with traction control. Shortly after buying it, I was playing around in some sand. I was intending on drifting through a corner. I slid the truck into the corner and applied some throttle, but the truck refused to accelerate and instead came to a complete stop leaving me stuck. I had to put it in 4HI to get out. Later that day I read about traction control in the manual. Live and learn!

 

Doing this makes a noticeable difference. I do it alot. Definitely lets the tires go alot more

 

I don't disagree with you.

As for TRAC and VSC, I understand they are both systems that use microprocessor control of the breaks to affect traction in certain circumstances. VSC is for driving on roads, TRAC is for off road, TRAC is on in 4L, VSC is off in 4L, or both VSC and TRAC are off in 4L depending on what option package you have (not sport), and in the end it all needs to be turned off to drive the tuck in the conditions I encountered.

I'm fairly confident that, given that it is now clear to me that some of the VSC/TRAK "stuff" (I am kind of purposefully lumping this together as one thing) remains turned on while in 4L, until you turn it off with a long press, my throttle/clutch control would have been just fine. I now understand I need to long press a button each time I encounter this kind of situation.

Thank you TacomaWorld.

 

You.are.welcome. signed, Tacoma world.

 

HMMMM wait a sec. TRAC is for traction control on the road as well. All Toyota's cars come with VSC and Traction control. A-TRAC, aka Active Traction Control, is for off-road. You don't get A-TRAC in the Sport, unfortunately.

 

TRAC is definitely not intended for off-road. That’s what ATRAC/MTS are for. But TRAC is slightly better than open diffs as long as VSC is disabled. It works okay for taking off from snowy intersections.

Semi-related, I did some experiments with AutoLSD vs TRAC in 2wd. Details are posted in the traction control thread, but the summary is that TRAC/VSC will not get your 2wd truck unstuck, but AutoLSD might.

 

it sounds like that you were trying to get closure on this with that thank you. You most likely will not.

 

I got SO hyped last winter, I found a super steep driveway at a really messed up angle and got to use the Auto LSD for the first time. The first time I pulled up it was an ugly one-tire fire, the second time I tried it with Auto LSD and it climbed up smooth as can be.

 

Okay okay. How about this: Magic computer shit that does things with the brakes - whatever that is.

 

Ummm... traction control?

 

random persons driveway ??? get off my lawn!

 

I’m gonna fuken cry

it’s so beautiful…